Mercedes Sees Fewer Robots in Its Future

Proud owners of the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class might be surprised to learn that their car was made using less automation and more old-fashioned elbow grease than previous models.

According to Daimler, the German company that produces the high-end sedan, increasing customization, like fancy carbon-fiber trim or heated cup holders, means that fewer robots are being used on its main production line in Sindelfingen, Germany.

“Robots can’t deal with the degree of individualization and the many variants that we have today,” Markus Schaefer, head of production at Daimler, toldBloomberg. “We’re saving money and safeguarding our future by employing more people.”

Unsurprisingly, the news has been pickedup bymany outlets, with some proclaiming it as evidence that the “robot revolution” is in trouble. In fact, as the original story explains, conventional industrial robots are still widely used on the Daimler line; it’s just that these machines aren’t so good for custom jobs because they can’t be reprogrammed quickly.

A new generation of safer, more flexible, and easier-to-program robots is better suited to such tasks, and such machines are increasingly being used in auto factories and elsewhere. So the real story is less about robots being replaced by human workers than people and bots increasingly teaming up to do things more effectively.

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I am the senior editor for AI at MIT Technology Review. I mainly cover machine intelligence, robots, and automation, but I’m interested in most aspects of computing. I grew up in south London, and I wrote my first line of code (a spell-binding… More infinite loop) on a mighty Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Before joining this publication, I worked as the online editor at New Scientist magazine. If you’d like to get in touch, please send an e-mail to will.knight@technologyreview.com.

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